Space Habitat Cooperative
  • Home
    • Outline
    • Debate
    • Essay
  • Strategy
    • ProMiSe 1
    • The Habitat
    • Movie
    • Technology
  • Memberships
    • Co-op
    • Opportunities
    • Get Involved
  • Contact
  • Survey
  • Blog

Moon Mars or Orbital

28/12/2013

 
Why an orbital habitat? Why not the moon or Mars?

Simple answer, gravity!

There are advantages to building and living in colonies on the moon and Mars. There is a great deal of space available and much resources.
One can readily scout for water or other essentials in a simple "stroll" out the front door. All the materials needed to build the colony and expand it are at hand and can be harvested without the need for distant transportation ... much like here on Earth.

The gravity on mars is only 38% that of Earths and the moon is only 16%. This is great, we will be able to leap tall building in a single bound! Heavy tasks will be lightened. Our physiology will weaken.
The micro gravity environments of Mir and ISS and the likes have taught us that the human body changes due to its environment. Our hearts shrink, our bone density declines our muscles atrophy. These effects are reversible in the short term but we do not know if they would after extended exposure to low G's.

This is only part of the problem. What about our offspring and the generations to follow?
Would we be be Devolving? Our offspring would be very weak and quite likely would not be able to survive if they were to return to Earth. It would be the initial trauma of a 100kg man suddenly weighing 300kgs (600kgs if a lunar offspring). His vascular system would not have sufficient blood to compensate for the rush of blood to his legs and feet. His heart would likely not be strong enough to continue to circulate his blood adequately.

One reason often given to justify a lunar or Mars colony is to protect the human species from catastrophic demise. But the Earth is far better equipped to protect us than either the moon or Mars. We have a significant atmosphere and a magnetic shield both are absent on the moon and Mars. Our magnetosphere provides a great first defense against cosmic radiation and our atmosphere is able to break apart asteroids that threaten our survival .. to some extent. A small asteroid of a couple of meters diameter would likely do little if any damage here on Earth but the same asteroid could compromise the artificial atmosphere integrity of a 
colony on the moon or Mars. Even if such colonies were buried under significant regolith, it would still be vulnerable to relatively small impacts.

Orbital habitats can produce artificial gravity providing an environment virtually identical to Earth. These habitats are somewhat mobile and can be moved slightly to avoid asteroid collisions. They provide the "best" platform for space exploration as there is very little delta V required to launch from an orbital platform/habitat compared to Earth, Mars and the moon.
An orbital habitat can be anywhere, there is no need to wait 4 years for it to be "close" to Earth to supply it or send someone home. The can also provide the best opportunities for scientific study in that any gravity from micro (virtually zero) to far greater than Earth can be generated on a single facility ... this cannot be done on Earth, Mars or Moon.

Our technological understanding is sufficient for us to build these orbital habitats. Only governments and bureaucracy prevent their existence. Many would argue that the cost is prohibitive but our project and its fundamental strategy shows that cost is insignificant if one build a "large" habitat. For example: if it costs $1billion to put an asteroid mining and metal smelting operation in space, then a space habitat built to house 100 people would cost each person $10million. But that same mine could build a habitat for 100,000 people at no extra cost .. just time thus the cost is just $10,000 per person.


One more thing, orbital habitats that are designed and built right could become colonial ships sent out of our solar system to reach new stars with Earth like planets. It would be impossible (realistically) to send Mars out of our solar system
.

Over Engineering

9/12/2013

 
A recent Twitter discussion lead me to a better understanding of the typical over-priced costs involved in space missions. It all started with a tweet about sorting tiny bits of recycled plastic in order to simulate soils on the moon and Mars. My first issue with this is that aggregate companies already have "real" soils graded by size available for whatever purpose removing the need for a $100k per annum person wasting their time on this task.

He argued that it was important to understand how soils react to rocket plumes and crater formation for a landing craft. He cited the fact that Mars Curiosity suffered damage to a wire on landing due to soil "shrapnel". He quoted two documents that he thought would shed light and justify his endeavors.
http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2009-1204
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/marsconcepts2012/pdf/4359.pdf
I argued that "of course a rocket will form a crater and what sort of poor engineering leaves a wire exposed and vulnerable to the elements on a $2.6billion non-repairable toy"!

NASA and its contractors have spent more than 10 years studying this "crater" phenomenon at, I am certain, some ridiculous expense.
Their proposed "fix" is to send a mission before a mission to "pave" a landing pad. That sounds like a multi-billion dollar unnecessary expense to me. It is far cheaper and simpler to engineer your landing gear and thrusters t

Our Technology

29/10/2013

 
Aside from the foundation of our project, the space habitat, we have numerous other technologies relating to the development of outer space. Here is a list of some technologies we have pursued in our decades of research and development.
  • The space habitat - initially designed to house about 1000 people, our current revision could accommodate several million inhabitants. 
  • Asteroid mining - our fully automated asteroid mining system is designed to extract raw materials from asteroids and produce structural steel and numerous other materials for use in space development.
  • Reusable launch vehicle - we have done a great deal of conceptual development into reusable LV's and strategies to reduce launch costs.
  • Space robotic assembly - our designs for automated assembly systems could handle virtually any space based construction project, big or small.
 Some of our more recent areas of research include the following:
  • Liquid salt reactor - Our enormous power requirements for our space mining as well as for the habitat require a high density power source. Thorium based nuclear power is one option currently being implemented in our designs.
  • Dual stage 4 grid Ion thrusters - this is perhaps the most promising long range engine currently tested and has demonstrated specific impulse in excess of 20,000s. We are currently looking at improvements that could further enhance this performance.


Comments on our website!

25/5/2013

 
We often get comments about our website that are appreciated and understood and so, here I will try and address them with some attempt at reason.

1) Looks: Yes, our site is not the prettiest and it is simple. There is a twofold reason for this; A) Our time is far better spent developing technology than it is building a website. B) Our finances and financial strategy include a no nonsense approach to our business structure. Spending money on a fancy site and nice CGI and graphics is not prudent. Our Coop structure will eventually have members that can address these issues without expense to the business.

2) Look and feel: kinda relates to #1 but this is more a limitation of our hosting providers tools. They are not as flexible as I would like and I could do better if I had better tools. I am not a web programmer so tweaking drag and drop web tools is not my forte.

3) Content: Here we try to be as straight forward as we can. Due to the proprietary nature of some of our technology, we are limited in what we can post. There are a couple of others that have started recently and announced that they are going to compete for similar goals. One thing we do that they don't is include time estimates. These are subject to membership growth as that is our principle source of income.

4) Credibility: First, we have maintained a policy, from day one, that we will not collect any membership fees until our membership reaches a certain minimum. This ensures that there is adequate funding to actually start to accomplish our goals. We are a cooperative, so you can get involved in the administration and ensure for yourself that we are managing our financial resources responsibly. Our technological claims occasionally get challenged and I have no problem addressing any challenge that is put to me. I personally have over 30 years of research into our project and as such can answer almost any question put forth. We do not have "all" the answers and again, the Coop is the solution to that.  As our membership grows, we will have 'someone' that can provide the expertise needed for virtually any challenge. Over the decades of research, I have consulted with a plethora of references and experts to verify our technology is sound.


So this is our ugly website and our reasons for it. Someday we may have a pretty page and until then I will continue to

Space Weapons

29/3/2013

 
The legal battles and debates about weapons in space is a foolish waste of time and effort. it boils down to a bit of logical thinking;
1) If someone has weapons in outer space, the only way to stop them would be to bring weapons into space and confront them. Otherwise they are free to do what they will with their weapons.

2) Until humanity matures past our possession based society there will always be conflict and thus a need for protection, or weapons. We have more than enough experience here on Earth to show that diplomacy is not sufficient.

3) The definition of weapon is different in everyone's interpretation. For example, In my opinion spy and even GPS satellites are a weapon. They are part of an arsenal used by a military regime to gain a battlefield advantage. An active military individual could also be considered a weapon. Should we allow a military colonel to fly a space mission?

4) Are our 'weapons' definitions going to echo the strict restrictions of air travel in some countries, better leave that nail clipper home for that 3 month trip to space.

Like it or not, weapons are already in space and in use. as stated earlier, until we change global society these weapons and others will be a reality in space. We have all kinds of "laws" at all kinds of levels and we cant police it here on Earth. What naive thinking leads us to the delusion that we can prevent weapons from going to space?

Investing in outer Space

26/3/2013

 
Space mining, tourism, development, colonization and new technologies are emerging on the market on an almost daily basis right now. This is reminiscent of the early days of the internet "bubble" that produced many billionaires on speculative investing. Of course some shirts were lost from the crash that followed, but here we are today with many powerful and wealthy companies and people as a result of that market activity.

Is investment in outer space going to do the same? Like the web/tech bubble much of the hype is based on speculation, virtual assets and perceived public value. Wealthy people are dumping billions from their personal wealth on the space gamble. So what exactly are they buying into?

The space industry use to be an industry dominated by government space agencies and huge aerospace contractors. We are starting to see a trend towards the newcomers capturing the contracts and limelight. This is in part due to a more commercial aproach by providing more streamlined and economical products and services. This new investment money is not only challenging the old school ways and suppliers to the industry but is also opening the doors to new markets that, up till now, existed only in science fiction.

Space tourism is perhaps the most tangible market that is poised to boom in the next few years. We can already take flights to experience the "zero G" effect. Several companies are booking flights into sub-orbital space and are likely to have the "licensing" to proceed by 2014. There are others that are more ambitious in their tourism proposals including trips to Mars. Space hotels are designed and ready to be lifted into orbit to accommodate the tourist of the near future.

Much of the emerging space industry is founded on the principal that the resources for space development needs to come from space. This sparks "fever" in the prospectors looking at Lunar and asteroid mining as the next gold rush. The mining of space resources is critical to human expansion beyond our atmosphere. These mined resources will also need to be processed and refined in space to provide building materials opening the doors to the space developer.

Real estate is likely the most speculative of all the space business. This has traditionally been the safe long term investment here on Earth. Will this be the case in space? The difference with space real estate is that it does not have the same limitation as here on Earth. Earth has limited land and therefore as the population grows, the land availability declines thus pushing prices up.

My opinion? Space development, or the ability to "build" in space will be the best investment. The few that concentrate early in this market will dominate. Those that also mine their own resources and build their own developments stand to produce the best gains. Mining alone leaves the investor at the mercy of market value and demand for the resource. Building for others limits profit potential as it adds others in the supply chain to the end user. Extract minerals, refine and process them, build space structures and sell them or their use to others. That is what we are positioning for our cooperative in order to maximize our growth potential.

ProMiSe 1 Asteroid mining probe project

26/12/2012

 
We chose to look at crowd funding to get our mining probe project started. The mining of asteroids in fundamental to the success of our space habitat.

indiegogo project link:
http://igg.me/p/300208/x/1963688

Space Mining ... is it legal?

15/9/2012

 
Some more thoughts on space mining.

The concept of taking something from outer space and selling it may seem, at first glance, to violate UN treaties. When one takes a second look with a far more 'open' view it becomes clear that we are and have been doing just that for a long time.

Is there significance in how space resources are brought to Earth? Just like anything we do here on Earth, what we do in outer space will be done in a myriad of diversity. The harvesting of Earth based resources is so diverse, it can involve everything from digging holes to building dams and everything in between. I believe the same is and will be true of space resources.

"No nation may lay claim to a stellar body ..." is a partial quote from a treaty regulating space activities. Does that include claims to "part" of a stellar body? I argue that this has already been violated. There is a constant influx of resources from space to Earth. Some of these resources are being harvested every day buy individuals, corporations and nations. Solar energy, or the harvesting of photons, is a common practice all over the world. This practice is in fact the harvesting of resources from the sun .. a 'stellar body'. Another example would be harvesting meteorites. Asteroid material constantly bombards the Earth and many seek to gather the fragments that impact upon the Earth.

In both examples above, there is a conscious effort to gather and use or sell resources that are not natural to the Earth. These resources were, at one time, part of a 'stellar body' and have through some means been brought to Earth. I question, what difference does the 'means' of bringing the resources to Earth play in this practice? The harvesting of solar energy is also done in outer space by satellites and other space craft so why can we not also harvest asteroids in space?

I say we have, we can ... and we will! 

Man or Robot

21/8/2012

 
I had a discussion recently about the use of robots and humans for space exploration. I was adamantly against the concept of sending humans to dangerous environments when a robot could adequately perform the task. His final comment was that "...humans want to go...".

I gave it some more thought as I lay trying to sleep and here are my thoughts:
There is very little we cannot do with robotics today. Here on Earth we use robotics to manipulate the very small as well as the very large. Robots can handle materials in a very wide temperature range. Though environment is an issue for both human and machine, I think machine holds the lead here as well. The extremes that we can achieve with robotics far exceed human capabilities.
Why send a machine to do what a man can do? I think that if we look back through human history we can see that many human lives were sacrificed to tasks we can achieve today with robotics. An example that came to mind is the construction of the railway system across Canada. Specifically, I considered the construction of a section of line near where I live in BC. Many lives were lost due to extreme terrain. Mining is another historic activity that has claimed many and yet we continue to sacrifice more humans to this industry. Deep sea fishing, construction the list goes on and on. All of these tasks could be accomplished with robots.

This brings me to the human issues. If we have robots do all this what will we do? What of the statement " ...humans want to go(or do)..."?
First, the what will we do ... question. I'm not going to touch that one because the answer involves totally rebuilding our society and I do not see this happening here on Earth for a very long time.
Second, humans want to.. do things. That's great, go ahead and do things you enjoy and are passionate about. I think there is a difference between doing something because you want to and doing it because it must be done. For example, if you want to jump out of a plane because you enjoy the thrill that's okay but if you are doing it to go fight a forest fire then why are we not sending an expendable machine. If I lost a friend to sky diving, I could comfort myself in thinking he died doing something he enjoyed rather than his job killed him.

So, do we send humans to the moon or Mars or asteroid mining or deep space missions? If the mission is to get information or material then there is no need for humans. Human missions should be strictly for the progression of human expansion or colonization. If we send humans to live on Mars or to visit Mars as a tourist and if they "explore" in the process, that is acceptable. We have attained a level of technology that could allows us to eliminate menial tasks from the human experience. When these menial tasks involve significant risk then Machine should be employed. Going to Mars and picking up rocks and analyzing them is definitely a machine task. If man wants to go to Mars they should do so because they want to and not for science or occupation.

Some news

9/7/2012

 
We recently approached another group with regard to some cooperation in space development. This group had some interesting ideas but the further we probed into their claims the more apparent it became that they were not at the stage they claimed to be. This is unfortunate as we are always happy to hear of others with space development plans.

Two changes coming soon.:
1) We are re-engineering our asteroid mining system. We are compacting it to reduce the number of launches required to lift the entire system.
2) We are designing an orbital (LEO) platform as a multipurpose facility. It will become a transfer point for minerals we are delivering to Earth. There will also be fueling, zero 'G' labs and a full gravity ring to accommodate tourism and "perks" for our membership. The ring, fueling and initial lab space will be built before work begins on the Habitat.

Stay tuned, more to come soon!


<<Previous

    Author

    I am the founder of this project.

    Archives

    December 2013
    October 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    December 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    May 2011
    April 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.